Interactions Among Living Things is a simple interactive demonstrating animal adaptations that help them survive. Click on different animals and habitats to view a short explanation or click on the speaker icon to hear the explanation. When finished, drag and drop animals to their correct habitat. The third part of the interactive contains a short wrap-up along with a discussion question.

In the Classroom

View this site together on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram (reviewed here) to compare and contrast two animals and their adaptations.

Find an eclectic mix of simulation and interactive activities to gamify learning. At the time of this review, there were seven diverse topics: Engine Simulator, Day Night Simulator, Dress the Knight, Nocturnal Animals, The Human Body, Braille Builder, and Captain Scott and His Crew (South Pole exploration). Each item delivers animated simulations of content. Some interactives offer options such as including labels or text highlighters. Others, such as the Human Body simulation, allow choices from several different topics within the simulator such as different body systems or organs for viewing.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Share simulations on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) during health, seasons, animal, and other units that correspond to content on the site. Allow students to explore and create Braille messages using the Braille Builder as part of a unit on vision or study of The Miracle Worker. Have students watch and explore simulations on their own then create and label drawings demonstrating content learned. Have students create online posters individually or together as a class using a tool such as Web Poster Wizard (reviewed here) or PicLits (reviewed here.

Culture Street introduces young people to contemporary writers, artists, and film makers and offers the opportunity to create unique work with the site tools. Choose from the many activities such as Paint Studio, Picture Book Maker, Super Action Comic Maker, and many others. Explore each of the four channels for an in-depth look at art, film, stage, and books. Scroll through the latest information to read about different artists and organizations. You must register to ACCESS this site. This website is funded in the United Kingdom. However, users outside of the UK are welcome to use all parts of the site once registered. .

In the Classroom

Create and share picture books using the Picture Book Maker Tool and the Super Action Comic Maker. Once students have created books, print to use at reading centers or create links on classroom computers for reading online. With younger students, have them create pages and then add their weekly spelling words scattered on the pages. This will give them practice both writing (typing) and reading their spelling words! Create short stories about a story's main character, setting, conflict, etc. instead of book reports. Images are limited, but text of any kind can be added.

GE Focus Forward offers a series of 30 three-minute videos featuring stories about innovators. Directed by award-winning documentary film makers, the films range in topics from a "Journey Under the Sea" to a look at the "Secrets of Trees." Hover over any film icon to view a short description of the topic. Click to begin. Share films using social networking buttons within the film. Copy the embed code to embed on any website or blog. Videos are hosted on Vimeo, which is accessible in most schools.

In the Classroom

Use this site as an anticipatory set or "activator" to introduce a unit or lesson on a projector or interactive whiteboard. Have students explore this site independently or in small groups. There is one film about sanitation that refers to "poop," so you may want to avoid classroom giggles from less mature students by setting the tone for scientific viewing. Use as any part of a career unit, as a look at explorers and innovators, or when discussing character education. Be sure to include this site on your class web page for students to access both in and outside of class for further practice. Challenge students to choose a topic to further explore and create a multimedia presentation using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge tools reviewed here.

CloudConvert is a file conversion tool. Upload any file to convert to a different format. Select files from your Google Drive, DropBox, or computer to begin. Choose the format for conversion. For example, convert an avi movie file to a different movie format such as mp4 or an audio file. Choose an option to receive your new file by email or directly into your DropBox (reviewed here ). This tool is particularly helpful for mobile device users because it can manage conversions of files both stored and converted in the cloud.

In the Classroom

Bookmark and save CloudConvert for use throughout the year. Upload PDF files to convert into Word documents, save PowerPoint presentations as a PDF, convert movie or audio files to one single type for use in class projects. Use CloudConvert to change files that won't open to a different format accepted by your computer.

EZVid is a video screencasting tool that captures everything that appears on your Windows computer screen. Once recorded, you can edit videos, add voice, add text, draw directly on the screen image, or control playback speed. Be sure to watch the video tutorial for all features. Upload finished videos directly to YouTube. Once uploaded, share using social networking links. At the time of this review, this tool was not compatible with a MAC. The website does offer some suggestions to MAC users (such as using Bootcamp). If your school blocks YouTube, you will not be able to use this site while at school.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use EZVid to record instructions for using websites. Share how to perform problems, step by step directions for any project, and much more. Leave a video message for your substitute teacher or even your class! Create a video message to share with parents about current projects, clips from field trips, and more. Share on your class website for students to view at home.

Explore and learn about parts of an orchestra with this interesting interactive resource. Click on any section of the orchestra image to see the name of the highlighted section and hear a short piece played by those instruments. Click again to complete a short fill in the blank about that section of the orchestra more in depth.

In the Classroom

Introduce this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Then have students explore this site independently or in small groups. This is ideal for music class or for schools with no music teacher. In science units about sound, take the basics of sounds a little further by having students figure out how different instruments within the orchestra generate sound waves and adjust the pitch.
Create a quick poll (with no membership required) using Updwn, reviewed here, to find students' favorite orchestra section.

Just as the name says, Online Voice Recorder allows you to record your voice from your computer and save the file. With no membership required, this is a free and simple recording treasure! Simply push the record button and follow screen prompts to ALLOW the application access to your computer's microphone. Talk as long as desired. Then listen to the recorded playback. Trim and edit the length using easy sliders as desired. Save your finished version in mp3 format using the link.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Have students practice spelling words orally, record speeches, practice reading fluency, and much more using Online Voice Recorder. After recording, allow students to listen to the playback and reflect upon the quality of their work. Do before and after recordings of students to share with parents during conferences to demonstrate reading progress. Have students record weekly summaries for what has happened in your class to share on your class website or blog (you will have to upload the files). Record weekly or daily homework assignments and share as a voice recording on your website. Save file space by replacing old files with new ones. Online Voice Recorder would be an excellent resource for recording and sharing more complicated directions for projects and assignments (adding you voice intonation and cues!). Your weaker readers and ESL/ELL students may do better with a combination of written AND auditory directions. Provide the link on your class website for students to use at home for additional practice in spelling, reading, practicing reports, and more. Share this site with parents at Back to School Night. Have students write and record audio book reviews others can play on iPads or iTouches in the school library. If you have gifted students in your classroom, this tool is simple enough for even the youngest to be able to record audio mini-dramas portraying a historic figure, poetry readings, and more. Be sure to show them how to NAME and download the files to the local computer! Anything they can say out loud can become a creative project recording. Don't forget about recording musical performances or practices.

Looking for ready-made graphic organizers? This time-saving site has numerous organizers available to print in a pinch or to use on an interactive whiteboard. Use these versatile learning tools with any book across all grade levels. The categories on the site provide efficient and effective searching. Find graphic organizers for assessing students, plot and sequence, character analysis and setting, reading comprehension, and organizing patterns. Find idea webs, Venn diagrams, timelines, KWL charts, story trains, reading records, and more. Integration ideas accompany each organizer.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Print and save the graphic organizers for use throughout the year. The organizers also work well on interactive whiteboards or projectors. These organizers are especially helpful when teaching different text structures found in informational text as required with Common Core. Use the organizers for writer's workshop or reading instruction. Share organizers when preparing for standardized tests to help students organize information. Use the organizers to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your student's thought process.

Create a virtual treasure hunt using the tools and maps on this resource. Follow simple directions to add clues to find any location on the globe. When finished, save to receive a unique url for your treasure hunt. Players follow your clues to find coins at each location along the way. After finding a coin, clues provide information for the next stop. There is a small learning curve for following and creating treasure hunts. But once you figure out the first one, the activity becomes quite simple to understand. See a very short treasure hunt sample here.

In the Classroom

Add virtual treasure hunts to many classroom lessons. Share treasure hunts on your projector or interactive whiteboard, perhaps for students to do as a center. Create treasure hunts to announce field trips, locate areas of interest for social studies lessons, or point out locations in novels and other reading material. Have students create their own virtual treasure hunt for a favorite location, where they were born, or to begin a biography of a famous person or series of historic events such as the civil rights movement. In science class, have students create a treasure hunt of habitats or environmental disaster sites. Create student-made mapquests for math skill practice as students calculate distances, map scale, and trip costs using a treasure hunt.

Create dice using the templates provided at the Dice Collector's page! Choose from many original choices displayed on the site, such as phases of the moon, the earth, and various versions of numbered dice. Click on any image to view the template full size, then print, fold, and put together.

In the Classroom

Print templates on cardstock for sturdier dice for use in the classroom. Create your own math problems, play games, or choose students for responses. Use the moon phase dice to review phases of the moon or choose the earth dice to practice naming countries, continents, or oceans. Use the templates provided to help create your own dice for any use you can think of - add student names, math problems, or story characters, review for a concept or test - the options are endless!

Find full length lesson plans for many subjects at Lesson This! Scroll through the latest posts or browse by learning objectives, tags, materials, or grade level using the boxes on the right side of the home page. Each lesson states objectives, lists materials required (with links to print-ables if needed), and includes complete directions. Many also include pictures of the activity.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Bookmark this site (or save in your favorites) to use as a resource for many lesson ideas throughout the year. Many lessons can be modified by changing materials or content of the lesson to fit your particular needs. Use the many seasonal "fun" ideas around Halloween, December holidays, and more.

Blendspace has been incorporated into Tes! Create an interactive online lesson or collection with this free tool. Type in your lesson topic and select from suggested resources. Your resources will appear in a grid on their screen. Upload Office files, PDFs, images, embed codes for videos, YouTube, and Internet links. This tool also can connect with your Google Drive or Dropbox account. Simply share the link for your finished space with anyone to view. Search for items to add right within the application. There is no need to use another browser window/tab to find the resources. Also, find lessons created by other teachers for you to use. Some of these are free, but not all. Watch the available minute-and-a-half video to get started. The introduction video is housed on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, the video may not be viewable. You could always view the video at home and bring it to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as Freemake Video Converter, reviewed here, to download the video from YouTube. There are Chrome and iOS apps for this tool.

In the Classroom

Use this tool to keep all your lessons and digital content in one place! Create Internet scavenger hunts and webquests or challenge collections for students to explore and learn. Insert your directions as text in one of the grid boxes. Add the text on top of other material in the grid box. Create lessons about various type of energy or rocks, systems in the body or types of tissues, categories of foods, environmental issues, books of various themes or genre, seasons, parts of speech, civilizations, etc. Use with faculty and staff to showcase a variety of tools for professional development. View the gallery of items created by other educators on the front page of the site and click the Be Inspired to see more listed by categories . Have student groups create curated collections on a topic or even collect poetry and images on a specific theme.

This read-aloud from TeachersFirst provides some resources and suggestions of books and activities on the theme of Foods and Nutrition. The content areas can provide rich opportunities to integrate the CCSS English Language Arts standards as we teach science, health, and social studies. With the current focus on childhood obesity, the popularity of school gardens and farm-to-school initiatives, and the campaign to "eat local," the connection to food-related books is compelling. This installment in our Help! I lost my library/media specialist! series of ideas for implementing Common Core really gives you "food for thought."

In the Classroom

When teaching science, social studies, or health content about nutrition, foods, plants, or farms, consider pairing fictional books along with informational texts to maximize the potential of every unit of study. This read-aloud is a good starting point. What a perfect way to integrate healthy eating, whether during the holiday season or spring garden planting!

Enter any recipe to find to map the origins of vegetables/plants included. After submitting the recipe a world map shows the highlighted locations of the original sources for the vegetables. These are the sources where the pants first came from, not necessarily where they can be found today. Also find a list of countries and their products. Click the example recipes included or copy and paste your own recipes right into the ingredient box. Our editors noticed that some fruits also could be mapped. Try entering cocoa to find out where the cocoa beans first came form.

In the Classroom

Use Map Your Recipe when teaching holiday traditions such as Thanksgiving or Christmas Around the World. Use this engaging way to find out where the vegetables (and some fruits) were originally domesticated. Include with a geography lesson and attempt to find recipes with ingredients native to countries located on the map and to your own region. In science class, talk about the conditions that allow a plant to find a new home on another continent. Are all plant species welcome? What conditions must be present for a plant to thrive in a new location?

Bunkr is a web-based presentation creation tool designed to organize and manage presentations from anywhere and any device. Add text, images, videos, and more to any presentation quickly and easy. Install the (optional) bookmarklet for Bunkr on your web browser to easily grab information to load into a Bunkr presentation. Choose settings to add a password so presentations are private. Save and share completed presentations using the url or embed code. Download to your computer in PDF or PowerPoint format. Free accounts allow 2 presentations with 100 pieces of content per account holder.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Demonstrate how to create a Bunkr presentation on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Have students create their own accounts to make presentations that go beyond PowerPoint capabilities. Create teacher-made presentations of review material or to introduce any new unit. Create a Bunkr as an end of year presentation for parents or at the beginning of the school year to introduce the yearly schedule and other back-to-school information.

The Mount Washington Observatory in New Hampshire is the "Home of the World's Worst Weather," but they also provide one of the world's best interactive weather websites. The combination of extreme cold, wet, high winds, icing conditions, and consistent low visibility helped Mount Washington earn its coveted title as the "Home of the World's Worst Weather." The Observatory continues to record and disseminate weather information. It also serves as a benchmark station for many types of severe weather research and testing. The Mount Washington station is one of the only mountaintop scientific stations to have remained in continuous operation with an active and expanding mission. They offer an unparalleled look at the Home of the World's Worst Weather. You can also purchase the opportunity to bring the science and excitement of Mount Washington into your classroom with live, interactive video conferencing technology. Premium content on the site is available for purchase. This review only includes the free portions.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Connect your classroom through the Mount Washington webcams, weather forecasts, photo galleries, and more. The Mount Washington Observatory website provides diverse, innovative educational opportunities from its summit into your classroom. Close your textbooks and view the magnificent multimedia on the site. Explore the photo galleries for a vivid view of the everyday life on the mountain. Use the photos for writing prompts where students need to integrate weather related information into their creative writing. As long as you provide a direct link to the Mount Washington Observatory website you have permission to use their photos on your site. The site offers seven different live web cam views to explore with your students. Record your own weather observations from the webcams. Listen to an mp3 of the weather forecast from Mount Washington. Challenge your students to create their own weather forecast recordings. Explore the Frequently Asked Questions page to learn how the Mount Washington Weather Observatory works. Have students track weather data at two contrasting locations (such as this one and one in the tropics) and graph them both on the same graph to show the differences. Include this link in your Snow Day links on your class web page for students who think the weather is bad where YOU are...!

Imagine a one-stop site for creating, editing, and distributing your school supply list and wish list to parents and others. That's TeacherLists. Create an account, find your school, and begin a supply list or wish list. Personalize your list with a short welcome statement, if desired. Choose from categories to add items. Categories include most popular items as well as specific items such as paper, pencils, or health and cleaning supplies. Include the quantity for each student, add a short note, and save when complete. Share your final list through email, direct url link, or several social networking links.

In the Classroom

Create a TeacherLists account for your building or teaching team and distribute your supply list or a wish list in an easy to find format for parents to access anytime and anywhere. Share what your class specifically needs to be ready for the start of school or a new marking period. Include the links to your lists on your class web page. Library/media specialists can share a schoolwide list to keep the media center well stocked with supplies. Art teachers can request the craft items and supplies they need. Even grandparents can help out the school when they know what is needed. Share with your school's parent organization for creating their own lists.

Take note! VideoNot.es is a collaborative notebook that will enhance your online learning experiences. Play a video file on the left side of the screen while typing notes in blank note-taking space on the right. You can't go wrong with this tool. Copy and paste a video URL from Khan Academy, Coursera, Udacity, Vimeo, or even YouTube. Play the video and start typing your notes! Each new line that you start writing on is time-coded to coincide with the video. After typing your notes, this noteworthy feature allows you to click on that line and the video will automatically jump to the spot that note was added. Imagine the time this will save you when reviewing your notes. Pause the video until the concept is understood and resume the video with keyboard shortcuts. VideoNot.es integrates with Google Drive. Save your notes in Google Drive to collaborate with friends and classmates. Collaboration with video information will revolutionize your online education and your experience in a flipped classroom. Note that this tool will not work if the video sharing service (such as YouTube) is blocked in your school.

In the Classroom

Flipping your classroom? You'll flip over this collaborative video note taking tool. Students watch videos and share notes with classmates so classroom time is more efficient. Use the qualitative information from the notes as well as quantitative data from pre-assessments to differentiate instruction. VideoNote.es is great for interactive formative and summative assessments. This is a great assistive technology tool for low-level readers to listen to questions as they type their responses. Use VideoNot.es to post online presentations and to type evaluations. This is a great tool to comment on multimedia projects created by students. Post video clips for students to analyze in all subject areas. Collaboration is easy with the Google Drive integration. Do your students lose their paper-and-pencil notes? Google Drive allows for optimal organization. Students and classes can combine their notes to create study guides for the lesson. Read more about Google Docs/Drive here.

Turn your photos into amazing videos using Picovico. Select from one of the available style templates to begin. Add photos of your choice from your computer or import from Facebook or Flickr. Add text if desired. Music can be added from the list provided or uploaded by you. Add a title and informational text to finish. Share via Facebook or YouTube. The maximum number of photos allowed is 30 which will yield three minutes of video. Directions are also available in Spanish. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable. You could always view the videos at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid reviewed here to download the videos from YouTube.

In the Classroom

Use this site to make commercials, science fair previews, and animated shorts in any content area. Create book talks or "ads" for a famous historic figure. Have students create "advertisements" for an organism or a literary character. Construct a travel commercial for a country or cultural site in a world language course. Use to make an end of year presentation of class events or a beginning of the year meet the teacher video. Be sure to share the presentations on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Embed videos on your class website or blog using the code provided or share a direct link to any video. If your class is BYOD or 1:1, have students create self-introductions to host on a PRIVATE class wiki (password protected for safety).